Oni Press is pleased to announce that the final issue of LITTLE STAR, Andi Watson’s touching and sensitive mini-series about the struggles of a new father will ship to comic stores in December. As the story comes to an end, Simon comes to some big conclusions about his life and his work.
When Simon’s daughter was born, he had a star named after her, and looked forward to the day when they could study the universe together. But lately he’s feeling more like an astronaut floating aimlessly in space than a ship on a nice, guided course. Life is more complicated than expected, fatherhood’s not coming as easily as he thought, and the pieces aren’t quite fitting the way he wanted. Are the sacrifices he’s making for his family worth it? Will he find the truth in the statement that it’s only when you lose yourself that you find yourself?
“Andi tackles topics that you just don’t see other books dealing with,” commented James Lucas Jones, Oni Editor in Chief. “His combination of humor and sensitivity is what allows him to create stories that are truly a slice of life. They ring true with people because they reflect experiences that, while they’re very individual, have elements of the universal.”
“The aim really was to describe how Simon’s life as a father didn’t fit the story we’re told parents lives should be,” Watson explained. “That we automatically become more mature and ‘better people,’ I think that’s the thing that really gets me; you aren’t suddenly eligible for sainthood just because you’re a parent. I also wanted to describe the uncertainty, the muddle and confusion, the loss of direction following the birth of a child.”
Watson himself wasn’t sure quite where the book would find its conclusion.
“LITTLE STAR didn’t go where I expected. I knew I didn’t want to do a cute ‘oh, look, Daddy is covered in baby poop. Ho ho.’ book and LITTLE STAR certainly isn’t that. It was a tough book because it could have gone in so many different directions at various points.
“So the book was full of surprises, it kept pulling me away from the cute scenes with young children ‘saying the funniest things’. Those happen, they’re real and wonderful but you don’t get the flip side in fiction so often and I wanted to look a little longer at the flip side, the lack of sleep, the tough days with tired and stubborn kids. The grinding boredom that’s part of the deal.”
What’s resulted is a conclusion that Watson and Jones feel readers will be very pleased with.
“This story is so artfully composed,” Jones concluded. “It gives you a complete, complex story arc that leaves you completely satisfied, and at the same time leaves you wanting more, in that you’d love for the story to continue. Andi’s characters are so realistic that you have no problem believing that their lives continue after the book ends.”
LITTLE STAR #6 is a 32 page comic with black and white story and art. Retailing at $2.99, it will ship to comic book stores in December. Previous issues of LITTLE STAR are still available; please contact your local comic book store for details.
